Well this will be the last blog post of the mission trip for 2012!  We have some pics here above from our last night and last day of the trip, plus a couple from the pizza party after mass this past sunday.  We had a great last night at the posada between having Carlos and the little girls and their moms surprise the kids at the posada, to a dinner out, to prayer partners.  I know that I personally did not get to bed that night until 3:30 am and there were still 8 kids up with Monte in the general room!  We had a great visit in San Diego on Saturday at Mission Beach and got to the airport in time given the hectic schedule of the afternoon, with a final landing at the airport with all 33 people that we went down with the previous week.  We had a great week and appreciated everyone's prayers through our very successful trip.

Carole Marti

all are pics from today (friday) at the work site.  last group pic (not one on calendar) is of all of our group and the extended family at the house we were building.  the last pic is a picture of a calendar with our group photo from last year's work site with carlos and the families there.  they surprised us at the posada tonight by showing up unannounced and the kids are really enjoying that.  a few tears also when they saw carlos and his mom.  hopefully the other family with the little girls that so many fell in love with last year will also make it tonight.

please post comments.  the kids LIVE for them!  and 92 degrees today and hotter than heck....but we heard it is cool in seattle!

loves to all.

carole

first pic is from our bob-off competition last night where our own bob diaz won the bobstacle course.,
rest of pics are from today's work site.  another upload coming.
carole

Hey everybody! We were gonna write on the blog last night but we were too busy having too much fun! This week has gone by so fast. None of us can believe that we're going home tomorrow. Today was our last work day. We built the wood support for the roof, which they are going to pour on Monday. There was a giant concrete slab that we had to pick ax, and a lot of us got hit in the face and arms by the flying debris. It was intense but all worth it of course. We had an ice cream break, but of course it was nothing compared to the fiesta lunch! We had carne asada with pico de gallo, guacomole, and salsa in tortillas. We also had quesadillas and pineapple juice. It was DELICIOSO. Then we had to say goodbye to the family, which was hard. Especially when Logan gave the notebook with all our little notes to Raul! Now we're back at the Pousada chillin' and getting our prayer partner gifts prepared. We have a pinata for later, and we also have to finish the Bob-Off! We've been having competitions for our Bob Diaz and the Bob from Sacred Heart parish. So far it's 2 to 2 and there's one more to go! This one is the trivia competition. They've done chess, arm wrestling, and obstacle course, and jokes. Tonight is gonna be great. And tomorrow we leave at 9am! See you guys when we get back! :)

Love,
Savana, Melissa, and Nick

P.S. to our parents:

From Savana: I hope you guys are having a great time in California! (You really deserve to take a break Dad.) You should get me a souvenir while you're down there. ;) I miss you both and will see you when you get back! I love you so much!

From Melissa: Mom and Dad, I miss you so much. And Dad, you are just WAY too funny.You know why. Mom, I miss you a ton! Tell John that I hope he had the best birthday ever. It's hot here and I miss being able to take my 15 minute showers. Can't wait to see you!

From Nick: Hola Padres y tambien mis perros! I miss you guys a lot and i hope this week hasn't been to lonely... Because this has been one of the best experiences i have ever had and i will have so many stories to share with ALL of you! So many great people i've met and that i'll never forget! I love you and i can't wait to see you tomorrow night!!!! Also mitch is gettin his flirt on!

Hi  everyone – This is Jim.  Well as hard as it is to believe, we’re at out last morning at Esperanza.  Today will be our last day to work with the family we have come to know over the last week.  The plan is to work on preparing the roof to be ready for concrete, followed by the farewell Fiesta with the group and host family this afternoon – It promises to be a mixed blessing of celebration of a wonderful week but also sad that we will have to say goodbye to the family and prepare to return home.   I’m very happy to say that other than a few minor sunburns and a few very minor cuts, scrapes and scratches and some sore muscles, we’ve had a very injury free and safe week and we are returning with most of the neosporin and bandaids we brought with us!  Tonight we’ll make one final trip to the local taco stand for dinner and will be heading back across the border early tomorrow morning so we can spend a little time at the beach in San Diego before our flight home in the afternoon.  Please continue to pray for us during this final stretch of the trip. See you all when we return!  Jim

So we had another great day.  2 of the vans (dianne's and carole/john's) headed off with Sacred Heart and St Benedicts to pour a roof - lots of concrete work and long assembly lines of heavy concrete buckets and lots of empty bucket assembly lines.  It was crazy for sure but it was a great productive day for those teams with another homemade great lunch by the family living in the house in that community.  the other 3 vans headed to our "home" esparanza house to do some "technical" work with wiring and columns and wall stuff....you can tell I was not there since I don't know all of the terms.  Like a lot of the work down here, it is stop and go at times and thankfully we don't have as many sunburns today.  the leaders are continually pushing water and gatorade and the kids have been great about applying sunscreen.  Lots of little scrapes and cuts and such but everyone has been safe.

We visited the Casa de Migrantes tonight after our work day which is where the men are accepted for up to 12 days when they are deported from the US for various reasons.  We attended a presentation by the adminstrator for casa de migrantes and then were able to visit with some of the deported men and heard many of their stories.  One that I was able to listen to was from Tacoma and had been in the US for 11 years.  Lots of info behind these folks and what they have gone through.  Many said they plan to go back to the US illegally by walking over the mountains and through the desert.  Unfortunately only 5% of the people who try this make it - most are captured by US border patrol or die along the way.  it is a very sad situation.

I will hopefully be able to post more later about our BobOff - we have Bob diaz in our group and Sacred Heart has a Bob as an adult leader.  Last night, they played chess and our Bob won.  This morning they had arm wrestling and their bob won.  Tonight there was a bobstacle course and our bob won.  Two more competitions to determine the winner.  It is hysterical.

I am being called and must go.  Back later with more pics i hope.

carole